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Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms

MANAMA, Bahrain — The three women in head scarves and black abayas surged into the main atrium of the Seef Mall at 11 p.m. the other night, unfurling a banner outside the Next clothing boutique that read, “It is forbidden to arbitrarily arrest and detain people.”

A picture was taken, and in less than a minute they had dispersed. As they tried to leave, more than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed police officers surrounded one of them, Fakhria al-Singace, pinning her spread-eagled on a cafe table.

“You have no right to arrest me!” she shouted.

“Shut your mouth!” a female officer said as she tried to handcuff Ms. Singace, pulling off her cloaklike abaya in the process. Officers shooed shoppers away and questioned a journalist.

The arrest at one of Bahrain’s busiest late-night spots occurred in the second week of a sweeping crackdown in this island kingdom in the Persian Gulf, a strategic American ally that is home to the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet and that appears to be reconsidering its decade-long flirtation with reform.

Contentious parliamentary elections, in which the Sunni governing family could lose some power to the restive Shiite majority, are scheduled for Oct. 23. Bahrain’s rulers worry that tensions between the West and Iran could provoke instability here, partly because of the close ties between the Shiites and Iran, and partly because of the American naval base, though Bahrain has said it will not allow any attack on neighboring countries from its soil.

Initially, the arrests seemed to single out high-profile Shiite political and human rights leaders, but by Thursday the number of detainees had swelled to 159, and appeared to include many young men not known as activists.

The government said the detainees were suspected of security and terrorism violations, and were not being held for expressing dissident political views.

“The king said 10 years ago we would have freedom,” said Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Mahfoodh, a Shiite cleric and opposition leader who backs an election boycott. “The experiment is now over.”

Many detainees have been held without charge or access to lawyers and family members, human rights advocates said. Local Web sites — blocked this week by the government but accessible through proxy servers — chronicled clashes with riot police officers and allegations of torture, supported by photographs circulated almost instantaneously by BlackBerry.

Photo

Burning tires obstructed traffic last week on the outskirts of Manama. Shiite youths have been setting fires, reflecting their anger at the government.Credit
Hasan Jamali/Associated Press

Supporters of the government have been clamoring for tough action all year. “The only thing the government did wrong was that it went too easy at first,” said Jamal Fakhro, a member of the Shura Council, a body appointed by the king to limit the power of the elected Parliament. “The government has taken hard measures to reinstate security and stability. The people want order.”

Around 3 a.m., at the same time that Ms. Singace was being questioned at the Sanabis police station, Mr. Fakhro received a picture on his BlackBerry of her hoisting the protest banner.

The government said this week that it would no longer tolerate unrest among the Shiite majority, who make up about two-thirds of the population but are barred from many government jobs and face a chronic housing shortage.

Detainees can be held in secret for 15 days under Bahrain’s anti-terrorism statutes, which are applied to people who criticize the government or take part in riots and tire burnings.

Bahrain’s royal family ruled under a state of emergency until the current king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, took power in 1999. He created a Parliament, and his security forces disavowed torture.

The kingdom beefed up its security forces with naturalized Sunnis, who are housed in brand new subdivisions in the island’s interior. Shiite opposition groups estimate that 65,000 to 100,000 Sunnis were added to voter rolls in the last decade as part of what they say was sectarian gerrymandering.

“If the Shias took control of the country, they would pop out one eye of every Sunni in the country,” said Amed Abdallah al-Boainain, 21, a resident of Askar, a coastal settlement for Sunnis employed by the security services and the royal court. Two of his brothers work for the police, and he is applying to join them.

Opposition leaders say the government is using a small number of acts of vandalism to fan public hysteria and justify taking down political rivals.

Photo

Three women in head scarves and black abayas surged into the main atrium of the Seef Mall at 11 pm the other night, unfurling a banner outside the Next clothing boutique that read, “It is forbidden to arrest, detain and exile people.”

“The government wanted only decorative democracy,” said Khalil Ibrahim al-Marzook, a member of Parliament from the opposition Shiite party Al Wefaq. “Now it is hijacking everything.”

Allegations of torture and police brutality circulate daily. A 23-year-old man nicknamed Abu Maryam showed marks on his ankles and feet, which he said were struck with hoses when he was interrogated about tire burnings.

Still, Shiite youth are continuing to set the fires that so frustrate the government, burning electricity pylons, wiring and traffic lights as well as tires. On a recent night, one 24-year-old said the crackdown would only intensify Shiite anger. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he takes part in the nightly operations, posting photographs of burnings and clashes to opposition Web sites.

“We aren’t provoking violence,” he said. “All we do is burn tires. We don’t hurt anybody. The government won’t give us permits to protest peacefully.”

Shiite clerics and Wefaq leaders have condemned such acts but have rallied the anger of constituents against the government, which they maintain treats Shiites as second-class citizens.

This year, opposition politicians united across sectarian lines to investigate official corruption. Sunni and Shiite legislators collaborated on a report that accused the royal family of illegally appropriating one-tenth of Bahrain’s scarce public land.

Opposition leaders have also accused the United States of turning a blind eye. “Bahrain is important to the United States for security issues,” the American ambassador, J. Adam Ereli, said in a telephone interview. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t raise human rights issues as well.”

The crackdown began on Aug. 13, when the opposition leader Abduljalil al-Singace was arrested after returning from a conference in London, where he criticized Bahrain for rights violations. The arrests of three other prominent Shiite activists followed, and his sister Fakhria was later detained at the Seef Mall.

Thirteen days after Mr. Singace’s arrest, around midnight on Thursday night, his lawyer was allowed to see him for the first time, Mr. Singace’s daughter Zahra said. The public prosecutor had not yet brought any charges.

“The government is using anti-terrorism laws, but only against opposition members and human rights activists,” said Nabeel Rajab, director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. “Bahrain should be in the Guinness Book of World Records. This is a country that has discovered 20 supposed coup attempts in the last 20 years.”

Correction: September 16, 2010

A picture caption on Aug. 27 with an article about political unrest in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain gave an incomplete translation of an Arabic banner held by the three women protesters shown, one of whom was arrested. The banner read: “It is forbidden to arrest, detain and exile people,” not, “It is forbidden to arrest and detain people.”

A version of this article appears in print on August 27, 2010, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Security Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe